


Let's Go Work for Subway

by halfhuman2214



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Boys In Love, Cashton, Gayness, Gen, M/M, Muke - Freeform, Other, Subway, bands trying to work in real jobs, documentary style filming, i'll add more with each chapter, that's all this is basically, tw eating disorder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-11 08:20:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5619991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfhuman2214/pseuds/halfhuman2214
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They spend a month in a little rural town in a state that they have never stepped foot in. The entire time they get a taste of the real world. Working in fast food, all the money they make going to charity.</p><p>However, things don't necessarily go so well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thesoulsailor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesoulsailor/gifts).



> So this monster of a fix started with an idea in my head last March while I worked at a Subway. After sitting on the idea for about a month I reached out to Carly on tumblr with my idea. I wasn't even sure if it was a good idea. She was all for it and even picked the pairings (I was between Malum, Muke, and Mashton. With writing the other pairing as the other two boys). I spent months just carving the idea out in my head before I started writing it down on paper in August. At the time I was running a chromebook, which are impossible to type on in the dark, but I started it and made little progress typing it up. Recently I got a mac and in a week the first chapter went from 500 words to near 5000.
> 
> What was supposed to be a one shot has turned into this massive multi-chapter fic with thousands of words.

It wasn’t an early morning day, which was surprising when they knew that there was something planned. But Luke woke up on his own accord with Michael's head pillowed on his chest, lips parted and hair wild. He finally had let it go back to normal, giving it a break after he had seen the close-up pictures from the KCA’s and IHeartRadio Awards a year ago. It had grown out enough so that all the bleach and dye had been cut off, much thicker than the state it had been in; it was also back to Michaels natural hair color. But Luke could tell the older boy was getting antsy and wanted to dye it again.

Luke checked his phone, noting the text from Calum that said he and Ashton were going out for a run. Which was surprisingly safe for them to do here. Management had them staying in a state that they had yet to be in. It was March, and there was still three feet of snow on the ground with the promise of more. Michael was absolutely giddy with the thought. Luke poked Michaels nose, causing him to scrunch it up. When Michaels face smoothed out, Luke pokes his nose again. This time, Michael rolls over wining, the blanket slipping away from his chest.

They came out to the fans back in May after over a year of dating. While they had received a tremendous amount of support. Michael received an overwhelming amount of hate. They nearly lost him in his battle with anorexia. Now months later, Michael was finally eating right and filling out again. You could still see the ghost of his ribs, could actually count each one individually. But now when Michael looked in the mirror, he saw that not fat.

Luke curled around him, spooning him. Michael was awake, he could tell by his breathing. Luke nuzzled his face into the back of Michaels' head. Dragging his calloused fingertips down Michaels sensitive sides. Giggles leave the older boys lips. That was one of the many things Luke had missed in the past months, now he tickles Michael at every chance he gets. Michael tries squirming away, limbs flailing, but Luke was bigger than him before they came out, so he had no hope of getting free. Luke finally let him go when Michael was struggling to get air in from laughing so hard.

“Morning.” Michael smiles once he has caught his breath. “What time do we have to leave?” He mumbles stretching his arms up and arching his back until it cracks.

“Hmmm?” Luke hums. “One I think. Ash knows for sure. Him and Calum are out on a run right now. We can do that here.”

“Eww,” Michael remarks rolling over to the phone. “I want pancakes.”

“I’ll order. You go shower Mr. I’ll shower in the morning.” Luke says pulling the phone out of his hand.

“Fine. Fine. But I want pancakes. With…” Michael starts trying to crawl out of the nest of covers that he had gotten himself stuck in throughout the night.

“With berries, not syrup. I know love.” Luke says fondly, an eye roll added in for measure.

Michael finally unwraps himself from the sheet, his green boxers sitting low on his hips. He kissed Luke’s cheek before disappearing into the bathroom, leaving the door unlocked.

Luke orders the food and sits there thinking. Pancakes were the first food that they could get Michael to willingly eat and keep down. In the beginning, of his recovery it was all he ate, but the sugary sticky liquid had disappeared, from all of their plates really. Just the sight or smell of it would set Michael off and he wouldn’t eat for the rest of the day. It had yet to make a return, and it might never, but now Pancakes were a primary staple in his diet, but nowhere near the only food. They were lucky really, very lucky. Michael hadn’t collapsed, hadn’t been caught making himself sick. No one in the band noticed. It had been Karen who noticed. They were supposed to be home for a few short days before they started promo for their fourth album in September. She had spent all of an hour with Michael and had noticed something was up, then marched him down to his primary care physician and had them do a full check up. She drove him home, left him under the watchful eye of Daryl and went down to the hotel that their management team had been staying in. Luke imagined the following conversation wasn’t pretty. He doesn’t know exactly how it went. But Michael was carefully situated in a private inpatient facility by the time the rest of the band found out they were getting some more time off. They didn’t get to visit him until almost a month later.

The place was a small unassuming building about an hour outside of where they grew up. It was up a long drive that was edged by manicured bushes. The yard was neatly kept and there were a few people milling about some in lab coats, others in pajama-like clothing. Michael was sitting with a group of people in a rec room playing a game of monopoly. His legs were tucked up under him, the sleeves of the hoodie he was wearing pushed up to his elbows. His bracelets had been replaced by a blue medical band that has all of his information typed on it in neat little letters. His face had lit up when they had crossed into the room. It was only then that Luke had really realized what was going on with his boyfriend. His face and arms were both bony in a way that was very far past healthy. They lived with him, saw him daily. All of this slid beneath their noses because of it.

All in all, they got to see him a few hours a week and he had a relatively short stay. He was back home with his parents in time for Christmas. The holidays were tense and slightly difficult, Michael had a slight slip in his eating habits when they first got back. And then they stumbled upon pancakes Christmas morning. Luke still remembers the joyful phone call he got from Karen accompanied by pictures. Both told the same story really. Michael was at the dining room table, Daryl on his left. They were deep in conversation, but you could see a half-eaten pancake in the picture. The boys got used to eating a lot of pancakes over the next while and were able to come up with a lot of different flavor combinations. The combinations helped Michael transition into different foods. And now three months later, Michael was kicking his eating disorders ass. There were days that were hard on him, as well as he still had a long way to go before he was back up into a normal “healthy weight”, but he was alive and happy.

Michael came out of the bathroom fully dressed in grey Metallica tee shirt and an older pair of skinny jeans that were now a little baggy on him. They were forced to buy some new jeans for Michael in a smaller size, Luke didn’t know that he had packed any of his old pants. He plopped himself down next to Luke and wiggled around until his head was pillowed in Luke’s lap. He looked up at the younger boys and smiled. “I over heard Zop talking to someone from security about how we will be here for a month.”

Luke smiles back, dragging a hand through Michael's hair. “I wonder what it is that we could be doing then.”

Michael shrugs, scrunching his nose up as well. “I dunno. But it’ll be nice not moving around for a month. We might actually be able to settle down, get used to a bed.”

“I” Luke starts, only to be cut off by a knock to the door. “That must be breakfast.” He pats at Michaels' shoulder until the smaller boy get’s the hint and rolls off of him and to the side. Luke pads over to the door and pops it open looking down at the art of food. He grimaces when he notices that they forgot his request of “don’t include syrup. It’s just a waste, we won’t use it.” He takes it in hand and sets it on the ground vowing to remind them to take it when they come to collect the cart in a bit.

Michael sits up a little straighter when Luke walks back over. A small smile still in place on his face. “Thanks, Lukey.” Michael supplies when he takes his plate from Luke’s hands. Luke kisses his forehead before taking his own plate from the cart and sitting on the bed next to Michael.

They ate in silence for a while before Luke broke it, “I know you want to dye your hair. What color are you thinking of going?”

Michal looks up surprised. “Oh. I don’t know. Maybe I’d ease them back into it again, go with like a brown or black for a bit.” Michael says ripping apart the pancake bit that he had in his hand. “But I kinda want to go blue again, like a mellow blue.”

“Not bright blue. But like a darker color?” Luke asks finishing off his food and setting the plate aside.

“Exactly, something that won’t fade as fast,” Michael says taking a bite.

“You’ll do it right this time? Treat your hair proper like?” Luke asks stealing a bite of pancake from Michaels plate.

Michael nods he swallows the bit of food that is in his mouth. “Promise. Deep condition treatments. More than four weeks between dye jobs. All that jazz.” He thinks for a moment. “You know. I don’t think the eating disorder helped my hair any you know? Like hair needs nutrients, and I was starving my body of what it needs, and the body is good at prioritizing what gets what when there is a lack of nutrients. Like how your fingers, toes and nose get cold first. It’s your body focusing on keeping your core warm. It was the same with my hair. I was so nutrient starved, that any nutrients I allowed myself to have were allocated to important functions. Like breathing. My hair was bad yes. But like when I started getting really bad, my hair hit it’s worst.”

Luke nods. “I don’t want to ever see you like that again. It was scary. One moment I’m thinking about seeing you in a few days after our short break was over. The next I’m getting a call from Zop about how we aren’t going back out till some time after Christmas. No one would tell us anything. For an entire month, any information that we got came from Karen. Seeing you that first time. It was hard. Because you had been there for almost a month already and the time gave me a chance to see what we had been missing. I just…” Luke trails off getting emotional.

Michael sets his plate aside. “I’m sorry. Really, I am. When I started it wasn’t supposed to blow up like that. I thought I would be okay. Loose a few pounds, then stop. Maybe then the fans would like the fact that I was with you. I didn’t realize how quickly it would go bad. I never want to be like that again.” He crawls across the bed to sit on Luke’s lap. “And if I do, then everyone knows what to look for and we know a really good facility to park my ass in for a few more months. But I’m really hoping that never happens again. I know my relationship with food is going to be a little wonky, and already there are days where I just can’t eat. But I want to get healthy. I want to be healthy.”

Luke gives him a watery smile before closing the gap between them. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Michael rolls off of his lap. “Now shoo. Go. We have a car call at one and it is already eleven. And we all know that you take forever to get ready.”

Smiling Luke gets off the bed and gathers his shower stuff. He shuts the door after seeing Michael pick up his plate to finish eating the last half of the pancake on there.

++++

Calum and Ashton are waiting for them down in the lobby at one when they get downstairs. Calum eyes the jeans Michaels wearing and smiles, following the unspoken rule of don’t bring up Michael's recovery process until he does. Ashton, on the other hand, barrels right past the rule and engulf him in a hug. “I’m proud of you Mikey,” He states before pulling away. He gets just far enough away that he can sling an arm around Michaels' shoulders and lead him out to the car. Michael stumbles at the sudden movement, scuffing up his worn converse even more. But the smile on his face is genuine, so Luke feels comfortable enough to let him go.

Calum shoots Luke a smile, holding his arm out for Luke to take. Luke just shakes his head and hooks his elbow with Calum's arm, heading out to the car. He is in a band with a bunch of idiots.

The car ride is very long, only about twenty minutes or so. However, they go from being in a busy area with businesses, and grocery stores, and people mulling about in the grey slush on the sidewalks. To a more suburban area, trees only broken up by a few houses and roads dotted here and there. They pass a park that is blanketed in unmarred snow, children sledding down a decent sized hill before they are pulling into a parking lot for a stand alone subway. They pull around out back where there are three cars and a van. Standing at the back of this building is Mark, the man who recorded everything for there How Did We End Up Here DVD a few years back. He is bundled up, gazing up into the clouded sky saying something to the girl who is standing next to him. She’s got her hands shoved in the pockets of her sweatshirt shrugging and speaking back to him, her pink hair piled up on top of her head. Zop is standing next to them.

One by one they pile out of the car. They catch the bits and pieces of the pairs conversation as Zop walks over to them.

“Do you think it will snow?” Mark asks still gazing up towards the sky.

“Smells like it.” The girl says pulling a hand out of her pocket and looking at it.

“What does that mean for power?” He asks looking down and over to her.

“It’ll be fine.” She sighs, clearly not worried about the weather.

“And the foot traffic?” Mark asks again, turning his gaze back up to the sky.

“It’ll be slower, but we’ll still get the lunch and dinner rushes,” She explains shoving her hand back into her pocket.

“How about the roads?” He asks

“They’ll suck.”

“What about…”

“BOYS!” Zop says smiling. “How was your late start to the day? I hope you enjoyed it. Now you guys remember Mark?” The boys nod. “Alright, well next to him is the lovely Anna, she is the manager of this location. She has so kindly allowed us to use her store.” The girl gives a slight wave before shoving her hand back in her pocket. “And this is a Subway. Over the next month, you will be working here, Anna will see which one of you is the best employee. And all of your “wages” will be donated to the charity or nonprofit the winner chooses. Mark is here to film it. I’ll give the floor to Anna know since she does this for a living and will be able to explain it better.”

“I would say let’s take it inside, but there is a crew installing all the cameras and equipment that needs to be installed to make this work, so, for now, we are standing out here in the cold.” Anna starts. “Hi, I’m Anna. I’ve worked here for three years now. I have been the store manager for six months. And I take my job very seriously.” She gives them a small smile. “Over the next month you will go through training, employee reviews, raise opportunities, promotion opportunities, and at the end, I get to decide who was the best. It will literally depend on these factors: speed, cleanliness, customer service, attitude, correctness. You guys are my team of sandwich artists. That’s it. As of yesterday, everyone else started working at another location temporarily. There will be long hours and a lot of information thrown at you. However, I’m here to be support. Any questions, ask me. At anytime. The goal is to be able to leave you guys alone in the store so I can have a day off. Any questions so far?” She pauses to give them a chance to speak. “No? Okay. Your starting wage will be $7.25. That is the minimum wage in this state. You’ll get paid hourly. We start training at seven am tomorrow morning for two of you. I know it’s early but I have to be here even earlier. I’ve already got the schedule made up for the next few days and after the training, it will be easier for me to make because I will know where your strong and weak points are. Any questions now?” She asks again. No one asks anything. “Okay. Well, I am out of things to talk about. I expected questions and all of the paperwork that I need is in the store along with the uniforms. Ummm anyone know any good jokes?” She trails off awkwardly.

The back door pops open. “We’re all set in here now.” A man says after sticking his head out.

“Okay. Let’s take this inside where it is warmer.” Anna says pulling the door open wider. “Come on in so Mark can get the run down of the cameras and so I can talk at you some more.”

The backroom of Subway has two steel prep tables, a walk-in fridge, a walk in freezer, a sink, an ice machine and the syrups for the soda machine. “This is the backroom. It’s where we do all the prep, eat, clean and so on. Today it functions as a meeting room of sorts. I’ve got paperwork packets that the company says I have to have you fill out even though you are only here for a month as well as uniforms that you are getting so you can come work here. It’s not much, just a shirt, apron, and either a visor or hat. But it’s the subway dress code. Before we could only wear khaki or black, now we can wear blue as well. So basically, just wear pant’s that won’t clash with the green shirt. And close toed shoes. I wear vans most of the time. I don’t care what is on your feet as long as your toes and heels are covered. Rules say the shirt needs to be tucked in, again I’m not a stickler for that rule either. You’re supposed to get a six-inch regular sub, either a bag of chips or two cookies plus a twenty-one oz. drink for every four hours you work. I say as long as it’s not in your first two hours of working here and you record what you take, I don’t care what you eat. Plus, you get free refills. Subway gives us a little leeway on things, like dress code and the meal rule. So as long as you follow my directions for them we’ll be all good because then I won’t get in trouble. Those two are my big ones because I want you to protect your toes, they’re important. As well as once a week I take an inventory and everything needs to be accounted for, so if you need help with that just ask. Any questions so far?” She pauses again. “Come on guys, I know this is confusing stuff and it’s a lot of info to take in. There have to be questions.”

“Facial piercings, you’ve mentioned nothing about them. Are they good or no good?” Luke asks toying with his lip ring.

“Subway is starting to allow just one, they have cleared nose and lip piercings. They haven’t said anything about eyebrow piercings yet, but it doesn’t matter in this circumstance because we aren’t getting inspected by subway while you guys are here because of all the extra equipment needed to have you guys here.” She answers. Afterwards, she walks over to a box. “Okay, everyone take two green shirts as well as an apron and either a hat or a visor.” She drags it into the middle of the room before separating the items out into piles. “If you need a size that isn’t there, just let me know and I will grab more.”

She moves out of the way as they shuffle forward to go through the stuff. She disappears into a small little office to flip through the pages of the packet while keeping an ear tuned to the murmurs of the group in the big room.

++++

Ashton walks over to the pile of shirts. “Cal you want a hat right?” Ashton asks holding one out to him. He tosses it over when Calum nods. “How about you Luke? Hat or visor?”

“Umm, a hat for me. Yeah.” He nods catching it with slight difficulty when Ashton tosses it to him.

“Shirt sizes? XL for you Cal.” Ashton asks.

“Large actually. I can always get a bigger size if I need it.” Calum says before giving Ashton a small smile before catching the two shirts and the apron that Ashton tosses at him.

“Luke? XL for your shoulders?” Ashton asks digging through the box again.

Luke shrugs. “Sure why not, doesn’t really concern me much,” Luke says before catching the items thrown at him.

“How about you Mikey. What size do you want?” Ashton asks looking up at him.

“Oh. Umm, I dunno. I used to be a large. So that size I guess.” Michael says shrugging.

Ashton gives him a small smile. “Large, okay.” He tosses two shirts and an apron over to Michael. He then takes two XL shirts and an apron for himself.

“Hey, Anna,” Zop says causing her to look up from the paperwork. “We’re ready out here if you are.”

She smiles and steps back into the big room. “Alright. So if you just take a walk out front to the line I’ll walk you through some stuff out there.”

One by one they file into the other room; Calum, Luke, and Ashton ahead of Anna. “Hey, Michael. Come talk to me for a moment.” Zop says motioning for Michael to come over. Zop leads him over closer to the door. “I didn’t even think to ask you about all this. Everything just came together so quickly. Are you okay with working around food? If you don’t think you are, I’ll pull you out right now. You won’t have to go any further than this.”

Michael thinks it over for a bit. “I think I’ll be okay. I’ve acknowledged the fact that I have a problem that I need to work on. And that my problem is food. But learning how to prepare food and everything could be good right? Teach me about portioning and what not? I’ll let you know if I think I need to be pulled. Or if you think I need to be pulled you can pull me.” He scuffs his foot back and forth. “I’m not going to lie. It might be tough. Especially where I’m not completely one hundred percent yet. But if I have people there to support me. I should be okay.”

Zop nods thinking for a moment. “Do you want to to tell Anna? There isn’t a law here that says you have to. But she is your boss. She’ll spend the most amount of time with you here. And she doesn’t know you. So she can be the judge and be unemotional about it. Plus, if you freeze up and she needs to jump in she’ll know why.”

“I don’t… Is it a good idea?” Michael asks.

Anna popping her head around the corner stops Zop from responding. “Everything okay?” She asks a frown on her face with concern.

“Yeah. Everything is fine.” Zop says. “Just wanted to run a few things by Mikey here.”

“Alright. Cool. We’re just waiting on you two, then I’ll release them back out till tomorrow.” Anna says moving back to the front.

++++  
“So lads what do you think of taking a break from the tour life to work in food service?” Ashton asks once they pile into the car.

Calum shrugs. “It’ll be weird. Like we’re actually doing something normal. I just can’t believe people get paid so little here. Like $7.25 isn’t all that much, then you factor in taxes, and a person is making less than seven dollars an hour.” He’s scrolling on his phone, eyes trained down.

“I think it’ll be interesting. Plus, it’s for a good cause. And the organization will benefit from the money we make.” Michael says, his head resting on Luke’s shoulder.

“I just wish I knew why they were filming it. Like, I haven’t heard anything about another DVD. And there is no way that this would sell any copies. Like how boring will it be to watch us fuck up on camera?” Luke cards a hand through Michaels blond locks.

“Food isn’t actually that hard. Like there are things you need to remember when it comes to cleaning and what not. How things are prepared and dates. But it’s actually kind of simple.” Ashton explains giving a little shrug.

“You worked the counter at KFC Ash. I’m sure this is different.” Calum says locking his phone and sliding it into his pocket.

“I don’t see how different it can be. Like it’ll be slightly different because we are actually making the sandwiches. But it’s still the same concept. Take the order, make it, smile, they pay.” Ashton says furrowing his brow.

++++

It must be a sight to see four large over grown boys pile out of the back of a car in a McDonalds parking lot. They had left the subway twenty minutes before, leaving Mark and Anna to finish up whatever they needed to do before they got to leave the store. Each one of them had a packet half an inch thick in their hands that needed to be filled out. They had only gotten two miles down the road before Ashton started complaining about being hungry. Luke quickly chorused that he was hungry as well and thy pulled into a place where they could eat food real quick.

Ashton and Calum had already ordered and were sitting in a booth. Luke was standing behind Michael as the paler boy was just staring up at the board blankly. “I’ll have a number seven, large. Ketchup for my fries. Barbecue for my nuggets.” He looks down at Michael who is still looking up at the board. “He’ll have a number one, medium. No onions.” Luke orders before pulling out a twenty-dollar bill and handing it over. He takes the change, the receipt, and their cups before leading Michael over to a table a little way away from the rest of their group. He sits down across from him, covering Michaels hands with his own. “Hey, you okay? You don’t normally hesitate like that.”

Michael nods. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

“Let’s try that again. Hey, boyfriend. You okay” Luke asks, not believing that Michael is fine.

“Just an old habit I guess Luke. I’m fine really, I just looked at the board and blanked.” Michael says giving him a small smile that was meant to be reassuring but did nothing more than put Luke on edge. “Zop thinks I should tell Anna incase working with food is a bad idea for me. He says she’ll be unemotional about keeping an eye out and getting me off the line.”

“What do you think?” Luke asks.

“I don’t know. I don’t know her that well, so that makes me a little hesitant to tell her. And I think I’ll be alright working with food and stuff. But it’s hard to tell. He’s right in the fact that she’ll be unemotional about it.” Michael says looking down at their joined hands. “About working at subway, I think it could be fun. And maybe a good thing for me. But we’ll have to take it day by day.” Michael tries to smile but it’s unconvincing.

Their number being called cut’s Luke off. He keeps a close eye on Michael while they are eating. He eats his entire sandwich and enough fries that keeps Luke’s mind at ease.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's their first morning at subway...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay and the length. I want to try and keep each chapter 4000 words, but I really struggled with the basic info dump I was writing. I have so much planned for this, but I feel like this is getting off to a slow start.

Luke struggles to wake up the next morning. By luck of the draw, him and Ashton had the training shift in the morning. They have to be there at seven and they get to leave at two-thirty when Michael and Calum get there.  Michael stirs slightly with all the commotion that Luke makes yesterday'sthe alarm going off and stubbing his toe while trying to walk around in the dark. He struggles into one of the green shirts before realizing that the shirt he was wearing was pulled tight across his chest in a way that was uncomfortable. Sighing he looked at the tag on the shirt remaining one from the pile that he had grabbed them from. The tag on the inside of the shirt says large, meaning that he had forced himself into one of Michaels. He pulls at the hem getting his head stuck half way off before getting it fully off. Luke shuffles around the room looking for where he left his two shirts the night before. He moves around bumping into the table and knocking over a chair. It lands with a bang and Luke freezes not wanting to wake Michael.

 

Michael rolls over into the still warm spot Luke had vacated, mumbling vaguely but still sound asleep. Luke sighs, righting the chair before looking around the room. His shirts were under the packet of papers that he had filled out after they had gotten back to the hotel. The slide into the bigger shirts is easier and this one sits more naturally across his shoulders.  He shoots Ashton a text before digging through yesterdays jeans for his wallet. When Ashton doesn’t respond to him ten minutes before they have to leave Luke pulls on his shoes. Black vans that he broke out just for this occasion. With a fleeting glance at his sleeping boyfriend, he heads out the door and down the hall to where Calum and Ashton are staying.

 

He has to pound on the door a few times before Calum was cracking it open, sleep ruffled and cranky. “What could you possibly want at six in the morning?” Calum basically growls.

 

“We have to leave in ten minutes,” Luke says shoving his hands into his pockets.

 

Calum’s eyes widen comically. “Shit. ASH you overslept. You’ve got to get up, Luke is at the door.” Calum yells turning on his heel and walking back into the room. He makes his way over to where Ashton is sprawled out asleep. He shakes the boy awake still yelling at him about being late.

 

Luke looks around the room through the doorway. One of the beds is made, completely untouched since housekeeping made it before they got to the rooms a few days ago. The other is crumpled as if two grown men had been curled up together on the twin sized bed. He takes notice of how their personal items are strewn about the room, no separation between the twos’ personal belongings. It’s similar to how Michael and his room is set up after they have lived in it for a bit. He smiles at the thought of his friends finding happiness in each other.  Ashton joins him in the hallway, sleep rumpled and combat boots untied after just slipping them on. “Let’s get this show on the road,” He mumbles heading towards the elevator.

 

“Hey, Cal,” Luke says catching the older boy’s attention as he is crawling back into bed. “If you push the two beds together and tuck the pillows that you aren’t using in the crack; cuddling works much better.” Calum open and closes his mouth a few times before Luke closes the hotel door. He turns on his heel and jogs to the elevator.

 

Ashton doses during the car ride to Subway, however, Luke spends the time gazing out the window. Spending the time watching the world before this sleepy little town wakes up. The ride isn’t any longer at this time in the morning. It being too early for the work commute really. They pull into the Subway parking lot just as Anna is unlocking the front door, the open sign bright in the dim morning. Their driver leaves the car idling parked in the front while they climb out. There are flurries falling from the sky as they make their way into the building. Anna is pulling covers off of the food, a grey long sleeve rolled up to her elbows under her black polo.

 

“Mornin’, boys!” She calls to them pulling down the glass covers over the food. Today her hair is in a ponytail, trailing down her back and slightly damp still. “Come on back. I’ll manually do your punches once I have everything set up in the computer. You need to get miced up first.” She disappears behind a wall before a door next to a soda cooler was opened up leading to the back area. “Set your stuff down in the office and get a microphone on. I’ll take your paperwork and start putting you guys into the computer.” She gives them a smile before taking the packets from them and heading over to the computer.

 

The backroom looks almost the same as it did the day before, only slightly more lively. There are uncooked dough rolls sitting on a rack with four slits cut into the top, three of the trays had a topping on them, the other three did not. The small office had a bag on the ground, with a jacket tossed over the top of it. Ashton slipped out of his jacket hanging it up on the rack on the back of the door. Luke following suit. Ashton has his visor on, hair pulled back in a little bun at the back of his head. There are two microphone packs sitting on the small table in the office. Ashton clips his to the back of his pants before running the chord up his shirt and clipping it to the collar. Luke ties his apron around his waist before settling the microphone in place. He shoots Ashton a crooked grin before leaving the office.

 

Anna is standing at the POS tapping away at the screen, a pen tucked into her visor. She looks up smiling at them. “All good to go?” She asks closing out of whatever it was she was doing.  After receiving twin nods, she continues, walking down the line. “Today we are just going to go over the basics. How to make a sub, food prep etc., etc. Stuff you’d do while on an open shift. Tomorrow I’ve got the two of you on the close shift and we’ll go over other stuff.” She pulls out three sheets of parchment paper placing them on the off white cutting board before reaching for a pair of gloves. Once they are on she removes three loaves of bread from the cabinet behind her, and places them on the parchment paper. “I’m going to walk you through cutting and the veggie portion of making a sandwich. Mainly because almost every sandwich is on that little sheet taped up right there by the meats. That will tell you what each sandwich gets for both a six inch and a foot long. A good rule of thumb though is four pieces of meat for a six inch, eight for a foot long. One boat for a six inch, two for a foot long. It’s the veggies that really get people. Well, glove up. You’ll never learn until you do it yourself.” She watches a half amused smile on her face as the boys struggle to get the plastic gloves on their hands. “Take a knife, cut the bread at about forty degrees.” She inserts the knife into the bread, dragging it down the length of it. “It creates a nice little resting place for your meat and veggies to go plus it makes folding the sandwich easier.” She steps back and watches the boys do it. “You’ll need practice, but that’ll do for now.” She reaches into one of the bins and takes out a small stack of cheese. “You want to lay the cheese like this, you get the most coverage this way. Fewer complaints blah, blah, blah, you get the gist.” She briefly glances over to the camera before training her eyes back to the boys. “Once you’ve done that, you move over to veggies. Subway has a certain amount of vegetables that we are supposed to put on like they do for the meats. I use most of those as guidelines. Fingertips. That’s my rule. Use your fingertips. Lettice first. Then spinach. Six tomatoes for a foot long, three for a six inch. Same for the cucumbers.  After that onions, green peppers, and pickles, using those fingertips. Banana peppers and jalapenos.” She moves through each bin as she says it. “Most of our sauces get three passes.” She picks up a light mayo and gives three passes of it on the veggies. “On the veggies, or the meats. However, you want to do it really. Then out take the oil” She puts the bottle in her hand away and pickles up a yellow one. “Sway it back and forth so it gets on both sides.” She drops the yellow bottle down and picks up a pink one after covering the sub in oil. “Same with the red wine vinegar as well,” She repeats the action. She takes a step back to watch the boys do it. Stepping in a few times to correct how they are doing things.  “Once you’ve veggied the sandwich, you fold it in half, like so. It can be quite difficult so I expect you to struggle with it. And then you…” She takes a bigger knife and places it in the middle of the sandwich and presses down in a sawing motion. “Cut it in half.” She moves it over off the cutting board and lays it at an angle. “Wrap around the short corner. One end in over the sub. Roll it once, then the other end in over the sub then roll it up the rest of the way. Don’t be shy about wrapping it tight. In this case the tighter the better. I also expect this to take some getting use to.” She wraps the sub up in the trademark Subway paper. She steps back to let the boys do it.

 

Ashton's sub fell apart on him while he was cutting it, the tomatoes not cutting fully and sliding out when he pulled the knife out. The resulting frown had Anna tutting and showing how to neatly tuck the tomatoes back into the sandwich. His wrapping job was alright. Luke’s vegetables looked downright pitiful. Unevenly laid, and flopping out the sides. Anna made him do it again. With a slightly better result, but it still needed work. He couldn’t actually wrap the sub without being walked through it step by step. She made them both re-do it again while she took care of some other tasks that needed to be done.

 

“How many tomatoes was it again for a footlong?” Luke asks staring dejectedly down at the veggies.

 

“Dude, I don’t know. I just put some on until the bread was full then moved on.” Ashton admits. “When they said work at Subway, I didn’t know they actually meant make the food.”

 

++++

 

Anna shows them both how to prep the veggies, this time by having them watch her, not actually do it. She did verbally walk them through it and promised that the next time that they were working with her, they would have to prep the veggies the next time they worked in the morning. It stayed pretty slow for most of the morning. It only really got busy during lunch time with all the business folks making their way during their lunch breaks. A line formed, six or seven people deep that required all three of them to be on the line. Luke started on the veggies and Ashton on the meat with Anna at the register and bouncing around from station to station keeping everyone happy. She was also handing out waivers and explaining to people what was going on. It was slow moving really, about twenty minutes into the rush Ashton and Luke swapped positions. Ashton was faster on the veggies as well as neater. And Luke handled a knife decently well enough that he could slice up a bit of bread.

 

++++

_“They’re like baby deer or baby giraffes learning how to walk” Anna explains; she is sitting behind a reddish backdrop. Blue hair piled atop her head in a messy knot. Wearing a sweatshirt instead of the normal subway attire. “I know a lot of people struggle with a new job at first. But usually, the people that I am training at Subway actually don’t do too badly on the line their first day. Especially where everything is laid out and explained for them. I mean the meat chart is right in front of their faces. But I mean I’ve been doing this for years, and picked who gets hired.” She shrugs giggling. “Is that the sort of thing that I’m supposed to do while I sit here.”_

++++

 

_Ashton is fiddling with his mic. “Is here good? Or do you want it up closer to my mouth.” There is another voice faintly in the background speaking to him. Ashton nods dropping his hands and looking at the camera. His hair has been cut shorter, and he is in a grey V-neck. “I definitely didn’t expect subway to be this hard. There is so much that you have to remember as well as be able to skip steps in how you were trained because not everyone wants all the veggies on sandwiches. I definitely went into this thinking that it was going to be easy work and then on top of that, the little bit of work that I did at KFC was going to make this even easier. But I was wrong. I almost dropped a sub on the floor. The floor. Who does that?”_

++++

 

The shift change happens during a lull in the day. Ashton is wiping down the tables while Luke is out back elbow deep in sudsy water doing dishes. The snow has picked up out there, but it doesn’t seem to keep the cars off the road. Nor does it seem to worry Anna any. Michael has snow flakes trapped in his blonde hair like he had been standing out in the snow. Both his and Calum’s noses are cherry red in a way that the short journey from the car to the building should not have caused. Luke surmises that Michael stood outside with Calum while the latter smoked a cigarette, Michaels always been fascinated by snow. Ashton's frown and Calum’s sheepish grin seems to answer Luke’s unspoken questions.

 

“Didn’t get my good morning kiss,” Michael mentions with a slight pout as he is setting himself up with a microphone in the back.

 

“Sorry love,” Luke says giving him an apologetic smile. “I didn’t want to wake you from your sleep. We left real early this morning.”

 

“S’okay. Can I have my good morning kiss now?” Michael asks turning to look at him.

 

“Of course, you can,” Luke says crowding into his space. “Good morning love,” Luke mumbles before bringing their lips together in a kiss. Luke wraps an arm around the paler boys’ waist, using the other arm to cup his cheek. Michael parts his lips letting Luke dip his tongue into his mouth, content just to take it today and not fight for dominance.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. School started back up again for me.

It’s been two days since they’ve started at Subway. In that time, Luke has dropped three sandwiches while trying to get them into the toaster and messed up three orders. Ashton luckily isn’t fairing much better either, what with his apparent inability to cut and wrap a sandwich properly. Anna looks more and more tired everyday, the sixteen hour days wearing her down since she can’t leave any of them alone. Luke assumes that Michael is doing alright. They have yet to have a shift together so he hasn’t been able to see for himself, but Calum hasn’t told him anything worrisome, so he is hopeful. The scheduling has made it hard for them to get any alone time. They get brief kisses while switching out shifts, and groggy cuddle sessions, when one of them get’s back to the hotel after the closing shift.

 

Today Luke and Ashton had yet another opening shift, their second since they started. So after eight hours Luke was ready to go crawl back into bed.

 

++++

 

_“I was really hoping that maybe they would have picked it up some what quickly. Especially with the longer shifts they were pulling.” Anna explains to the camera, her arms crossed a lot more relaxed now that she has been talking to the camera for a while. “I mean normally training goes day one veggies and some prep; day two meats and more prep; day three register and the rest of the list. After that eventually, you learn how to open or close if you are old enough. So I get that it is a lot thrown at them, but I taught myself how to do the meats and by shift three I was training how to close and by shift five I was closing on my own. I can’t pull sixteen-hour shifts forever.”_

++++

 

Michael knocks on the office doorway. Anna was sitting in the chair trying to put together the schedule for the next week now that she has seen the boys at work. Calum is out on the line cleaning it and helping a customer whenever one comes in for “practice” as he put’s it. “Hey, can we talk for a moment?”

 

She looks up, surprise written on her face quickly falling into a smile. Setting her pen down she leans back in the chair. “Sure. What’s up?” Michael steps into the little room, shutting the door behind him. She straightens up. “Everything okay?”

 

Michael looks down at his hands pulling the black sleeves over his hands while he collects his thoughts. “Uhm. Yeah. I just have two things I want to tell you. Or well actually, one thing to tell you, two to ask you.” He looks up briefly. Anna nods for him to continue. “I-uh, I’m had- have an eating disorder. I’m trying to recover, most days I’m okay, I can eat and it doesn’t bother me. Somedays just the though of food makes me sick to my stomach.  Zop, out manager, knows obviously, but he thought it would be a good idea for me to tell you since you have an unemotional view on it and would be able to tell the easiest if I need to be pulled. And I was wondering if you could keep an eye on me? I don’t always do what’s best for me and while I think working here will be good, there is the possibility that it could turn into a bad idea very quickly. So could you be a third party, tap me out if I need it?”

 

Anna sits there quietly staring at him. “I knew about the eating disorder.” She finally says. “Or well guessed at it. I may be a store manager, currently your boss, but I’m a fan too. Subway eats a lot of my time up. I hadn’t seen a picture of you in a while, then all of a sudden I see one and you look off. I couldn’t place it, at first, then I went back and watched a video, an old one. I realized you had gotten scary thin, and pulled into yourself. When Zop pulled you back that first day I really knew, I just wasn’t going to ask.” She pauses for a moment looking at the schedule before looking back up. “In my opinion working with food will help you, but yes, I will stop you if you seem to start going backwards in your recovery.” Michael shoots her a small smile, that she returns. “Is the second question as heavy?”

 

“God no.” Michael lets out a relieved laugh. “I was just wondering if I could have a print out of the papers on the line? I have some of them down, but not all.”

 

She raises an eyebrow staring at him for a moment. “Can I train you how to open and close?”

 

They stare at each other for a moment before Michael nods. “If you think I’m ready and I can have the paper, then yeah you can.”

 

She smiles, “You just asked me for a paper so you can do your job better. Whether you think it’s nothing or something, to me it’s important. I’ll print the paper before you guys leave tonight. Would it be too much of me to ask you if you could get here for six-thirty tomorrow morning for your first open shift?”

 

“I’d have to run it by the driver, but I don’t see it being a problem really. Is it just going to be training?” Michael asks biting his lip.

 

“For now. The goal is to eventually have you all able to open or close. But you’re the first one showing initiative and all.” She leans over to pull out a blank schedule. “The prep and making sandwiches is something that will come easier with time. I’ll probably start training someone else some time this week as well.”

 

++++

 

_Michael is sitting in a chair, jean jacket on and hair a dark purple. “When I started all the extra training, I personally didn’t feel ready for it. Like we had been working at Subway for all of like three days at that point. But in the end, we were doing this for charity, and the money went to the person who was deemed the best employee. I wasn’t going to say no.”_

++++

 

_“I think that Michael being the one to get trained first is actually a good thing for him. Recovery wise.” Luke starts, beard growing on his face and hair flat. “I’m not happy that it means he is doing better than us at making sandwiches. But I can’t lie, it was great for him to shut Ash up about being the best at working at Subway. Like I’ve worked the most shifts with the guy. He’s absolutely terrible at making sandwiches.”_

++++

 

_“Is Luke insulting my sandwich skills?” Ashton asks in mock offence looking off screen somewhere. “He has no room to talk. Who kept dropping sandwiches? He did.”_

++++

 

Luke is already in bed by the time Michael and Calum get back to the hotel, even though it is only nine thirty at night. He has his computer open, Netflix going. It’s some bloody slasher film that they have all seen thousands of times before. Michael drops his room key on the table, along with his wallet and the little key Anna gave him for the back door of the store so he can get in in the morning. “Hey, love.” He greets slipping out of his Subway polo, draping it over the back of a chair for the morning.

 

Luke looks up from the screen, smiling softly at him. “Hey, Mike. How was work?” He closes the computer and sets it on the floor next to the bed.

 

“Slow, Anna left us to muster through the night check list while she did other managerial type things. I’ve got a picture of the schedule for tomorrow out on my phone.” He toes out of his shoes, leaving them by the table before walking over to his side of the bed. He plugs in his dead phone before sliding out of his jeans.

 

He disappears into the bathroom to brush his teeth while Luke rolls over to turn on the older boy’s phone to see the picture of the schedule. Slightly shocked to see that Michael is opening the next morning. He lets Michael get back into bed before rolling over on top of him and sucking a mark into his neck. “I’m proud of you Mike,” He mumbles into the pale boy’s skin as he palms the boys half hard cock. He had been missing their intimacy and was determined to relight the spark as well as show the older boy how proud he was of him.

 

++++

 

Calum is excited when he lets himself into their room. He managed to somehow get the morning off with Ashton, which means they might be able to have a breakfast date if he can convince his curly head boyfriend to skip the morning run.

 

Ashton is scribbling words down on the notepad that he carried around in his carry on, beat up acoustic guitar resting on their now conjoined beds. “How was work babe?”

 

“Umm, It was fine. Mike’s learning how to open tomorrow. We’ve got the morning off; I was thinking we go out to get breakfast somewhere. Just you and me.” Calum explains dropping a kiss to the top of Aston's head. He slips out of his polo, tossing it onto his suitcase and plugs his phone into his charger next to Ashton's. “I’m sure we can find us a place that’ll have something for both of us to eat.”

 

Ashton looks up raising an eyebrow, “Mike’s that good?” He looks mildly impressed.

 

“He’s better than me, that’s for sure,” Calum says sitting on the bed to untie his shoes. While leaning down he adds. “He went in to talk to Anna about… It was Zops idea I think, she posted the schedule afterwards with a note saying that it can change. I’m assuming that means for more training.”

 

“So you were saying something about breakfast?” Ashton asks setting his pen down and joining Calum on the bed.

 

“Yeah. It’s been a while since we’ve done something just the two of us. We were back home the last time.” Calum says nodding.

 

“Or,” He slides a hand up Calum’s thigh, “We could spend the morning in bed, under the covers. Order room service.” He kisses Calum on the neck.  “Have sex in every position we can imagine.”

 

Calum tips his head back. “That sounds like a good idea.” He pulls Ashton onto his lap and kisses him. “You have a great idea Mister Irwin. I like the way you think.”

 

++++

 

Part of Michael regretted agreeing to learn how to open. Six thirty in the morning meant getting up at five forty-five at the latest. Plus, it was just him and Anna until Luke got there at ten. The rest of him was excited, though, in just a half an hour of being there, he had learned so many new things. The learning curve was huge, especially since he was still learning how to do basic things like making a sandwich. He enjoyed the work, though, it kept his hands busy and he got to do what he loves, talking to people.

 

Luke arrived a few minutes before ten, the purple mark Michael sucked into his neck last night on full display for the world. Anna took one look at it and rolled her eyes while shaking her head. Michael gave him a slight wave before going back to making the sandwich for an elderly woman.

 

It was business as usual.

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on tumblr!


End file.
